Justification:
This species is considered to be Least Concern, because it is widespread in the eastern Pacific, it is common in many parts of its range, there are not considered to be any major threats, and there are no indications of ongoing population declines.

This eastern Pacific species is distributed from the Gulf of California in the north to coastal Peru in the south. Populations are present at the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), the Revillagigedo Islands (Mexico), Malpelo Island (Colombia), and Cocos Island (Costa Rica). It is found from 1-80 m in depth.

This species is common throughout much of its range. This species was studied in different sites in the Galapagos Archipelago, being the second most abundant species in that region, with an overall mean abundance of 13.2 individuals/500 m2 (Edgar et al. 2004). This fish was studied in the Gulf of Papagayo, Costa Rica (Dominici-Arosemena et al. 2005) with a density of 0.01 ±0.01 ind./m2. This low density may be due to great exploitation of this fish for aquaria activity. At Gulf Dulce, Costa Rica, it had a density of 0.002 ±0.009 ind./m2, and a relative abundance of 0.066% (Figueroa 2001). Within a five-site study survey at Catalinas Islands this fish could be observed in all sites, with an overall observations of 92 times (Espinoza and Salas 2005). According to Aburto-Oropeza and Balart (2001), H. passer is a dominant species at Los Islotes, Gulf of California, with an occurrence frequency higher than 80%. In Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, this fish was considered common — 1-5% of the overall abundance registered — with a relative frequency between 75-100% (Villarreal-Cavazos et al. 2000). In Bahía de Navidad, Jalisco, still in México, this fish was captured just once within 12 (one each month) field trips throughout a year (Rojo-Vázquez et al. 2001). A survey at Gorgona Island coral reefs, Colombia (Rubio 1986), showed that this fish seems to be abundant in coralline bottoms, frequent in sandy substrata while occasional in rocky bottoms and tide-pools. Zapata and Morales (1997), also in the same place, recorded a density of 2.128 ±1.511 ind./10 m2, with an observational frequency of 98.8%.

This species is typically found over rocky areas with clear water (Allen 1980). It feeds on sessile invertebrates, algae and plankton but is more specialised to feed on sponges. Females are more territorial and form pair bonds with the males. The adults clean parasites from sharks (R. Pyle pers. comm. 2009).

There are no major threats to this species. It is collected for the aquarium trade (Fenner 1995, Dominici-Arosemena et al. 2005); however, this is not thought to be major threat to the global population. This species was affected by El Niño during the 1997/98 event, with a temporary population decline of more than 50%, but had returned to pre-El Niño numbers by 2000.

There are no known conservation measures in place for this species. However, this species' distribution falls partially into a number of marine protected areas and populations are believed to be present in these.